As always, there’s tons of yummy food at Ryan’s and Angel’s and of course the desserts are the best part. The grilled asparagus comes to a close second. We chatted and played Rock Band. I was then introduced to Time’s Up, a mixture of charades/taboo which was really fun. Unfortunately my team lost big time as I’m not that familiar with pop culture (nor the inside jokes apparently), but it was really fun. I’ve always been a big fan of charades and pictionary and other team guessing games.

Ryan made me an Old Fashioned and for some reason, I thought the drink was way too thick. By thick, I mean it had a high viscosity and I didn’t particularly like that. I kept on adding ice to it, and it helped a bit. I felt like it had a consistency of syrup, but maybe that was because it was so sweet. When I was at Jan Lyk’s, I had a couple glasses of whiskey on the rocks and found that to be much more enjoyable. Though apparently it’s a sin to have Johnny Walker Gold w/ ice. Maybe next time I’ll have it straight up.

I left Ryan’s around 7:45pm, but not before I had a spoonful of their homemade vanilla bean ice cream (which was awesome!).

By the time I got to Jan Lyk’s, it was pretty much a full house already. Jan Lyk’s new place is really sweet! I think they really have great taste in design and furniture. What’s missing right now is a giant TV in their living room.

So Jan Lyk was also having a BBQ at his party and apparently this was a Brazilian BBQ in contrast to the American one at Ryan’s. The difference is American BBQs typically comprise of hamburgers and hot dogs, while Brazilian ones comprise of racks of meat. I was pretty full by the time I got to Jan Lyk’s party, but I couldn’t pass up on medium rare filet mignon. There was also chicken, racks of lamb, racks of beef, and probably some pork also.

Later in the evening we went up to his roof to watch the fireworks going off at Gasworks Park. We had a pretty good view, besides the fact there was a nude guy across the street walking around his apartment with his blinds opened. I did miss blowing up fireworks at Ryan’s since I love being a little pyromaniac. Plus they usually have ones that shoot up like 20ft into the air which is just awesome. Maybe next year.

At Jan Lyk’s, I noticed this funky chalkboard clock and I mentioned to Aurash that he should fix the rooster:

After speaking with Joana, she explained why there was a rooster. See if you can figure out why there’s a rooster on the clock.

I met a bunch of new people and we chatted quite a bit and everyone was having a swell time. I finally left Jan Lyk’s around 3:15am. I should probably go get some sleep.

Since neither Xyon nor Chad have ever tried dim sum, we had been planning to do dim sum for sometime. This weekend turn out to be a great day to do dim sum. I took them to O’Asian, one of the better dim sum places around here, but even that’s not really saying much. If you really want good dim sum, you go to LA or Vancouver, but we had to make do with what we had. Surprisingly their favorite dish was 合桃蝦 (shrimp and walnut), which technically isn’t really a dim sum.

After dim sum, Xyon had to go help Janine pack, while Chad and I went browsing through downtown. Chad had to meet a friend in the city later and his choice was to go home and come back later or hang around till then. I had nothing better to do, so we just hung out around the city. It was such a nice day, so we just walked everywhere.

We first headed to Pike Place Market. At first I thought this was my first time here when everything was opened given that I used to wake up at 4pm on the weekends, but then I recalled I probably took my mom and sister here at a reasonable hour. While going through Pike Place Market, there was this long line in front of this donut shop called Daily Dozen. I asked a random girl if the donuts were really good, and her reply was “They’re awesome!”

I snapped this picture. Now I want my own donut making machine! I already have a deep fryer. I just need something to make dough turn into O’s.

After chilling at Pike Place Market for awhile, we headed over to International District as I wanted to find a red envelope and a wedding card and Chad wanted melonpan. Oh yeah that reminds me, during dim sum, we had wanted 菠蘿包 (pineapple bun), since I told Chad it’s basically the Chinese equivalent of melonpan, but they had already sold out at noon. Technically pineapple bun’s don’t have any pineapple in it. It’s just that the top crust resembles a pineapple. According to Wikipedia:

Melonpan and pineapple bun from Hong Kong are very similar. By comparison the Japanese style is lighter in weight and taste, slightly dryer and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) which resists to flaking unlike its Hong Kong counterpart which should be treated with care as the top cookie crust tends to flake easily. The Hong Kong version is also more moist and is generally soft on the outside and inside and has a stronger butter flavour.

Unfortunately there’s no Japanese bakery in International District, so no melonpan. I have been told they sell awesome melonpan somewhere in Lynnwood, but they sell out around noon everyday.

We browsed through Uwajimaya and Kinokuniya, but I wasn’t able to find anything that I particularly liked. They also didn’t have any wedding red envelopes. I had found some wedding red envelopes in the Bellevue Uwajimaya, but they didn’t look that nice and came in packs of 10. Why would I ever need 10 wedding red envelopes. Save for the future? This bigger Uwajimaya didn’t even have wedding red envelopes, just regular lucky ones.

We walked a bit more around International District trying to find a store that might sell wedding cards or red envelopes, but that ended up being fruitless. I personally wouldn’t know what type of store would sell wedding cards and red envelopes. My best guess was a gift shop. We stopped by Gossip to get boba milk tea and sat at the park across the street while we enjoyed the sun and let our legs rest for a bit. It was quite funny trying to explain to Chad what boba meant in Chinese, since it doesn’t mean tapioca. I’m not going to explain it here, but you can read more about it at Urban Dictionary (2nd entry).

Afterwards we took a bus to Westlake shopping center and just hung around Nordstrom and Pacific Place and checked out mostly clothing stores. We ended up in a real Papyrus store (not one of the fake ones where you see a section inside a supermarket) and Chad helped me pick out a really nice wedding card, which I approved. Now I just need to figure out what to write inside of it. Haha. Chad took a big hit in his wallet when we went through Express for Men. Our trip ended in Barnes & Noble, where we hung around there until Chad had to leave.

Earlier, I had planned on getting roast duck for dinner. I was already downtown and it’s been awhile since I had roast duck. However, Tekman and texted me earlier asking if I was coming to his Cinco de Mayo party and I had totally forgotten about it. I replied asking when it was going to end as I was still downtown with Chad at that time. His reply was probably very late as usual. So now that Chad was gone, I called Tekman asking if they wanted roast duck (I still had that roast duck craving). He said he would very much like roast duck. Perfect! I didn’t have to finish all the roast duck by myself + now I get all the extra goodies Angel and Tekman were making.

While I was at Ocean City waiting for them to chop up my duck, I asked the waitress where I could find red envelopes and they pointed me to a book store a block up the street. I guess I should’ve asked for instructions earlier on instead of walking around International District looking for a gift store. Turns out this bookstore sells red envelopes individually and it was only $0.60. Hating carrying change around, I told the shop owner to keep the change (唔使找 – interesting… to make change in Cantonese uses 找 which means to find). However the shop owner insisted I take the $0.40. Oh well.

I headed over to Tekman’s afterwards and enjoyed really awesome tacos and enchiladas. Angel also made these awesome sugar cookies (with lime and zest?). The company there is awesome as usual and the conversations are always intellectual, intriguing, and fun. I played a bit of Rock Band and later switched to Dominion. I got pwned in Dominion every time. Haha. I ended the night by having some of Angel’s awesome margarita cake.

I wonder how many times I used the word awesome?

Why bring up this story? I had recently read this letter on Digg: Australians Are Good At Disputing Parking Tickets and found the situation rather amusing.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to dispute the above-mentioned “infringement” notice, which was presented to me at 8:26am on March 11th 2010, approximately 30-40 seconds after I pulled into the car space in La Trobe Street.

Firstly, allow me to congratulate the officer involved, who’s application to his job is something we can all learn from. How’s this for dedication: I park my car at approximately 8:25am. I get out of my car & walk around to the boot, where my briefcase is. I dig into my briefcase & come up with the $8.00 required to pay for my 2 hours of parking. I close the boot & start walking towards the ticket machine (which is right next to my car), when at precisely 8:26am old mate gives me a puzzled look, asks me “where did you come from?” and proceeds to tell me I’ve been written up & given a ticket.

Seriously, I’ve gotta hand it to him – this guy’s a genius. Somehow he knew I fully intended to comply with the regulations and pay for my parking, so he did what any good parking officer would do – he wrote me a ticket before I even had the chance to walk the 8 steps to the machine to & pay for one. Officer 355 must get a raise, no questions asked. If the City of Melbourne had more officers that demonstrated this type of innovation, imagine the revenue that could be raised! We might even be able to afford – I don’t know, some police? Another giant wheel near Docklands? More parking officers!?

I accept full responsibility for not getting from my car to the ticket machine in time. The 30-40 seconds I let lapse between parking and finding my $8.00 was clearly my fault. Can you please advise me what the threshold is for time lapsed before purchasing a ticket? In the interim, I will commence winding down my window as I pull in and throwing my coins at the ticket machine in the hope that some find their way into the coin slot – if I can then get a passer-by to hit the button for me, this should enable me to have the ticket before I get out of my car.

Or you could waive the ticket. Please check the officer’s notes & do so – this is bullshit.

Yours in disbelief etc,

(name deleted)

(Text copied from Pantless Ponderings)

Speaking of which, has anyone figured out where all the free parking days come from?

• Third Monday of January: Martin Luther King Jr.?
• Third Monday of February?
• Last Monday of May: Memorial Day?
• First Monday of September: Labor Day?
• November 11?

We took her to the Seattle Center and checked out the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. It was VonLobster’s and my first time there too. It was interesting. It was fun to see Denise and VonLobster jamming on a real guitar.

Afterwards, we headed down to Olympic Sculpture Park. Part of the park was closed because a wedding was going on. The ceremony was held in the Gates Amphitheater:

(Source)

It was so BEAUTIFUL! Chairs were placed along the stairs. The building (completely in glass) you see in the back was where the reception was being held. What you can’t see from the picture is immediately to the right is the lake. The scenery was just breathtaking. Did I mention it was so beautiful?

We walked around downtown a bit more and the topic of dessert came up. Denise decided that she wanted cupcakes and apparently the best cupcakes in the Seattle area is Trophy Cupcakes. We dropped by the one in Wallingford. Denise got the Chocolate Hazelnut Peanut Butter Chocolate, VonLobster picked the Carrot Walnut, and I chose the Vanilla Chocolate. We decided to save these till after dinner, so not to spoil our appetite.

VonLobster introduced us to the restaurant called How To Cook A Wolf. The name of the restaurant was so cool, that I decided to use that as the title of this blog post. Their menu was also very unique and apparently it changes often. Everything on it just sounds so good!

Here’s what we ordered and shared:

• Treviso (Cauliflower, Orange, Pine Nut, Anchovy Dressing)
• Quail (Garbanzo Bean, Asparagus, Saffron Aioli)
• Skate (Brown Butter, Caper, Lemon)
• Rigatoni (Spicy Sausage, Tomato, Marjoram)
• Casarecce (Bacon, Onion, Black Pepper)

It was so delicious and now has become one of my favorite restaurants in the Seattle area.

VonLobster had mistaken me for becoming a wine-enthusiast due to my recent Facebook status update of being carded for buying wine. Unfortunately I had to disappoint him. Some time later, the discussion of getting a girl’s number a bar came up, and the fact was, I had previously gotten a number from a girl at a bar. I then realized I never told anyone of what happened in Texas. For those that recall my tweets:

Got either drunk /typsy for the first time in my life. Must’ve drank 5x tonight more than I’ve ever drank ever. Dunno how my brother does it. That’s 3x Long Islands + 3x Starf*ckers + 1 shot of Pitron Tequila + 1 shot of hypnotic. Surprised I can still type.

(Source, Source)

And there’s a good reason why the story is still under wraps, but we were in good company, and I told them what happened. No, I will not discuss what happened on this blog as it was rather embarrassing and a night I would very much want to forget. I must not have been drunk enough as I remember pretty much every detail. VonLobster was jealous. Throughout college, many have tried to get me drunk and never quite succeeded. One night in Texas and everything just goes out the window. I guess my brother has something to be proud of.

After dinner, we hopped across the street into the game store and we learnt to play Piece ‘o Cake. It was actually very interesting and fun, but since it was our first time playing, no one really figured out the strategies until later in the game. Our scores ended being pretty close, but VonLobster was ultimately the winner.

We went back to VonLobster’s place and played South Park – Let’s Go Tower Defense Play. The game is REALLY fun in co-op mode. I had purchased the game several weeks ago, but since I’ve been really busy, I haven’t gotten a chance to play yet. It’s funny how both VonLobster and I have unopened Xbox 360 games just sitting around. Before we knew it, it was past midnight already. We enjoyed our cupcakes. I would have to say VonLobster’s choice of Carrot Walnut was excellent. We decided to call it a night after those Jackovasaurs kept dominating us.

Due to complications with her hotel, Denise decided to stay over at my place for the night. Before calling it a night, I introduced her to “How I Met Your Mother” and she enjoyed it. I dropped her at the airport earlier today. All in all I had a great time. I presume the others did too.